Glenbard South holds off Aurora Central
Glenbard South senior Billy Bair has a long memory to go along with his long locks.
The 6-foot-5 center entered Saturday night's Metro Suburban West boys basketball game against Aurora Central Catholic with a chip on his shoulder.
He left Aurora wearing a big smile on his face after scoring a team-high 16 points during the Raiders' 58-53 victory over the Chargers (2-5, 1-2).
“It was nice because they beat us last year in the (Class 3A) regional championship (69-62) so it was good to get some revenge on them,” said Bair, whose pullup jumper broke a 48-48 deadlock with 2:23 remaining.
“That was my motivation for this game.”
Bair also was a major contributor at the free-throw line where he converted on all 12 attempts, including a pair of foul shots with 23 seconds remaining, to seal the decision for the Raiders (7-3, 3-0).
“They're an aggressive team so we drew a lot of fouls,” said Bair. “Luckily, we were able to convert at the line.”
Glenbard South connected on 27 of 35 free-throw attempts, more than quadrupling the Chargers' 6 of 10 foul line numbers.
“Sometimes it's hit or miss when you get there,” said Raiders coach Wade Hardtke. “Fortunately tonight, we were able to make enough of them.”
The Raiders were also finally able to slow down ACC junior sharpshooting guard Brett Czerak, who led all scorers with 22 points and 4 assists.
“He's silky smooth,” Hardtke said of Czerak. “Fortunately, a couple of those (shots) rimmed out for us.”
Czerak, who at one point made 8 consecutive field-goal attempts, scored 15 points during the middle 2 quarters as the Chargers grabbed a 41-38 lead heading into the final period.
“He's the reason we were leading after three (quarters),” said Chargers coach Nate Drye. “I had to play him a little too much so I think he kind of wore down the stretch. I've got to figure out how to get him a little break. I've got to do a better job because it probably had an impact on the final stretch there.”
Buzzer-beating shots from Jake Bush and Nick Faltz (15 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals) at the end of the first and second quarters propelled the Chargers to a 27-22 halftime advantage.
Czerak's layup off a feed from Donovan Reid (5 assists) extended the Chargers' lead to 36-27, prompting Hardtke to call a timeout in an attempt to regroup.
From there, Glenbard South closed out the third quarter with an 11-5 run, keyed by Povilas Riauba (14 points), Charlie Bair (11 points, 7 rebounds) and Tim Marks (10 points).
“Midway through the third quarter, we finally started seeing some of the adjustments that we were making,” said Hardtke. “We were scoring inside even off of the bigs' passing and cutting. We worked it inside and we shared the basketball.”
“They really started stepping up their defensive pressure and we didn't handle it well,” said Drye.